i 



October 25, 1917] 



NATURE 



149 



huge " factory " school, found so often in our 

 large towns, and would limit the enrolment so 

 that no school should accommodate more than 600 

 pupils. 



These reforms, it is declared, would tend not 

 only to the efficiency of education, but also to the 

 betterment of the teacher's position as regards 

 both emoluments and social status. But the fal- 

 lacy underlying a large number of the propositions 

 laid down in a more or less arbitrary manner (for 

 there is little or no attempt made to adduce reasons 

 for the changes advocated) is that education may 

 be improved by a mere extension of time. Educa- 

 tion is at present compulsory in Scotland until 

 fourteen years of age, and even then a consider- 

 able percentage of the children in attendance fail 

 to attain any satisfactory standard in the " three. 

 R's." Extend this by one year, and all will be 

 well. It seems never to have occurred to the 

 committee that a change in the methods of elemen- 

 tary education might bring about better results 

 than the present, even at the earlier age. The 

 object of education is to supply the child with 

 ideas which shall be instrumental in after life, and 

 these instruments can be intelligently and effi- 

 ciently used just in so far as the child understands 

 not only the instrument, but also the principles 

 upon which it has been constructed. 



Now, few teachers realise the instrumental char- 

 acter of ideas, or that the activity of knowing 

 arises either to satisfy a need or to meet a new 

 situation, and that the failure of education is due 

 largely to the neglect of these considerations. To 

 take an example : If the continuation school, on 

 the technical side, is to achieve its object, it must 

 provide opportunities for the meeting and solving 

 of the real situations and problems of the work- 

 shop. If this is borne in mind, then it must be 

 obvious that continuation schools can be instru- 

 mental in solving only a limited number of the 

 real problems which arise in life, and that in 

 many cases a boy or girl will obtain the best tech- 

 nical education in learning how to meet the situa- 

 tions which arise from real work. The boy, 

 e.g., whose desire is to become a fisherman will 

 obtain the best training by his daily work, and 

 will benefit little by being compelled to attend a 

 continuation school until eighteen years of age. 

 Rather, he will probably waste his time, and so 

 render himself less fit for his daily avocation ; and 

 if we go on, we shall come to other exceptions, 

 and find that, like all general rules, the particular 

 principle that all boys and girls should be com- 

 jjelled to attend some kind of school until eighteen 

 is too wide to be of any practical value in solving 

 the real problems of life and of education. 



A somewhat similar fallacy arises from the de- 

 mand made for more science teaching in schools. 

 Because science deals with realities in contrast to 

 the humanities which arc said to deal only with 

 ideas, therefore education in science will be real 

 because it deals with realities. But real problems, 

 real situations, are often absent in the teaching 

 of science in schools. A boy learning chemistry 

 may throughout deal with realities, and yet never 

 be called upon during his course to solve a real 

 NO. 2504, VOL. lOOl 



problem, since for him the need never arises. 

 Generally we must ever keep in mind that educa- 

 tion is taking place only when our pupil is "think- 

 ing " ; that thinking arises only when there is some 

 problem to solve, some new situation to meet, 

 or some obstacle to remove ; and that when these 

 conditions are absent all instruction becomes, and 

 must become, mere unintelligent memorising, 

 which develops neither the intellectual powers nor 

 the ability to meet the after demands of life. 



In conclusion, the one reform needed at present 

 is to form a clear idea of what education really 

 is — to understand that it takes place only when 

 our pupils are being trained to think out solutions 

 to real problems, or to devise means to meet real 

 situations. Thereafter we may fruitfully discuss 

 the agencies best fitted to attain this end, and, as 

 a consequence, we may be less chary of believing 

 that a new earth is to be attained by the extension 

 of the leaving-school age and by the compulsory 

 school education of all until eighteen. We may 

 even doubt whether "compulsory" eduqation is 

 education at all. A. D. 



NOTES, 



The death is announced, at seventy-three years of 

 age, of Prof. A. J. F. Dastre, director of the labora- 

 tory of animal physiology at the Sorbonne, and a mem- 

 ber of the Paris Academy of Sciences. 



We regret to see the announcement of the death on 

 October i8, in his eighty-ninth year, of Prof. Edward 

 Hull, F.R.S., late Director of the Geological Survey of 

 Ireland, and professor of geology in the Royal College 

 of Science, l3ublin. 



Mr. W. B. Worthington, who was elected presi- 

 dent of the Institution of Civil Engineers at the last 

 annual general meeting, has resigned the position from 

 reasons of health, and Mr. H. E. Jones, a vice-presi- 

 dent, has been nominated president for the year 

 1917-18. 



At a meeting of the Royal College of Physicians of 

 London, held on Thursday, October i8, the Baly 

 medal, for physiological work, was presented to Prof. 

 W. M. Bavliss, and the Bisset-Hawkins medal was 

 given to Sir Arthur Newsholme, in recognition of his 

 efforts for the advancement of sanitary science. 



The death is announced of Sir John Prichard-Jones, 

 Bart., principal of the firm of Messrs. Dickins and 

 Jones, the London drapers. He took an active in- 

 terest in higher education in Wales; he was treasurer 

 of the Welsh National Museum, and a member of the 

 council of the North Wales University College, 

 Bangor, of which he was senior vice-president from 

 1909 to 1913. The University of Wales conferred 

 upon him the degree of LL.D. 



On the occasion of the recent Glasgow meeting of 

 the Rf'fractory Materials Section of the Ceramic 

 Societv, the council appointed two sub-committees 

 (with power to co-opt additional members) to prepare 

 reports respectively on (i) standardisation of methods 

 of testing, (2) refractories for spelter furnaces. It is 

 anticipated that the former will be ready for the spring 

 meeting in Sheffield, and the latter for the following 

 autumn meeting at Cardiff. 



We learn from the Times that Mr. Walter Long 

 has appointed Sir Boverton Redwood, Bart., Director 

 of Technical Investigations in the recently created 



